I'm the founder of WorkplaceTrends.com, a research and advisory membership service for HR professionals. I also wrote the New York Times bestselling book, Promote Yourself, and the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0. In 2010, I was named to the Inc. Magazine 30 Under 30 List and in 2012, I was named to the Forbes Magazine 30 Under 30 List.

We’re seeing more and more recruiters use the web as a place to search for talent and conduct employment background searches. This trend is set to increase year over year and I’ve been predicting that an “online presence search” will become as common as a drug test since 2007. Your online presence should consist of your own website at yourfullname.com (a domain can be purchased at GoDaddy.com using promo code FAN3). This website is the core of your online presence and if you optimize it effectively, it will rank number one for your name in major search engines such as GoogleGoogle. Also, your online presence should contain social network profiles, with vanity URL’s, on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter at a minimum. I would also get listed on sites, such as Spokeo.com, and obtain your Google profile.

By claiming your web presence, you’re protected from other people, with the same name, claiming it before you. You also gain control over how you’re perceived online, and thus what employers find out about you when they conduct their search. A recent study by OfficeTeam shows that more than one-third of companies feel that resumes will be replaced by profiles on social networks. My prediction is that in the next ten years, resumes will be less common, and your online presence will become what your resume is today, at all types and sizes of companies.

5 reasons why your online presence will replace your resume:

1. Social networking use is skyrocketing while email is plummeting

More and more people are using social networks to send and receive messages. About 90% of U.S. Internet users visit a social networking site each month, reports Comscore. Usage of Web-based email has fallen 8%, with the biggest decline among 12 to 17 year-olds, with an almost 60% drop. Although, you may think of this as a generational trend, the highest growing demographic on FacebookFacebook is 35+, and LinkedIn caters primarily to that demographic, too. Employers are reviewing your profiles to see what kind of person you are outside of work, who you’re connected to, and how you present yourself. Each gives clues to how well you can fit into the corporate culture. When employees don’t fit in the culture, there is turnover, and it costs the organization thousands of dollars.

2. You can’t find jobs traditionally anymore

In order to get a job, you have to be creative, attract jobs to your website, and network constantly. Applying to job postings, in newspapers and online, won’t get you anywhere and is becoming completely ineffective. Susan Adams, of Forbes.com, shared a survey by webjob.com of recently employed job seekers found that 23% of those surveyed found their job through ads. By building your online presence, employers can find you and thus you have more opportunities. If you don’t have an online presence, you won’t appear to be relevant and you will be passed over for more savvy applicants that have visibility. You need to be creative in your job search by developing your own product, eBook, viral video, or personal advertisement. Finally, you need to treat your life as one giant networking event, and meet as many people in your field as you can.

3. People are managing their careers as entrepreneurs

In the career field, the term “Careerpreneur” describes a professional who manages their career like an entrepreneur, always searching for the next big opportunity. My colleague, Scott Gerber, author of “Never Get a Real Job” says it best: “you need to create a job to keep a job.” A survey of 1,623 Gen Yers, conducted by Buzz Marketing Group, Scott’s Young Entrepreneur Council, and presented by LegalZoom, finds that more than 35% of Gen-Y’ers have jobs have started their own businesses on the side in order to supplement their income. This shows that the younger generation understands that there’s no job security and that they can build companies to offset their low wages. Another study revealed that 84% of employees plan to look for new jobs in 2011 (up from 60% a year ago). It’s too easy to get laid off now, which is why you need to build your online presence before you need it, and constantly look for the new opportunity that will further your personal brand.

4. The traditional resume is now virtual and easy to build

Have you ever created your resume using MicrosoftMicrosoft Word? I’m sure you have, but those days are quickly coming to an end. Professionals are going to start using LinkedIn’s “Resume Builder” tool to turn their LinkedIn profile into a resume that they can use to submit to jobs. In this way, LinkedIn profiles can be used passively and actively in the job search process. Employers use LinkedIn as a search tool to find top talent, and job seekers use LinkedIn to leverage their network in support of their search.

5. Job seeker passion has become the deciding factor in employment

Your online presence communicates, or should communicate, what you’re truly and genuinely passionate about. 83% of job seekers would rather have a job they love than a job that pays well, according to to a SimplyHired.com survey. On the other hand, I firmly believe that you won’t be able to obtain and sustain a job without passion anymore. There is far too much competition and employers like to see people who are enjoying their work because they will be more productive and help foster a stronger corporate culture. Your best bet is to develop your online presence and focus your job search around what you’re passionate about instead of what will make you the most money. You will soon see that your passion will make you more money than your thirst for a higher wage!

Dan Schawbel is the New York Times best-selling author of Promote Yourself. Subscribe to his free monthly newsletter for more insights.

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Really? “You need to treat your life as one giant networking event.” If that sentence doesn’t give you pause, then you need to turn off the internet for a day and take a holiday; actually you probably need a retreat or to take a year off or to climb a mountain or something. Life is about living, not about selling oneself. We are not commodities, nor products, nor brands. We are human beings, citizens, spouses, parents. I wish you well.

Actually I kind of like Dan’s way of describing life as “one giant networking event.” Putting a little effort into building relationships with people — online and off — is something I know I wish I’d done more of, and not just for professional reasons.

Your online presence WILL NOT replace your resume in 10 years as a lot of your online presence (profiles, wall, pictures, etc.) might contain information that is not allowable in the hiring process such as race, religion, national origin, age, sex, familial status, sexual orientation, disability status, and other qualities that are not allowed to be used as decision points. These characteristics are defined by federal anti-discrimination law and state laws. Employers using your online presence as a resume would NOT be protected from charges of discrimination.

[...] I made a Twitter account because I can learn so much from this social networking site. In fact, a Forbe’s article I found while exploring Twitter, stated that online presence will replace a resume in five years. [...]

I was happy when I seen this article because I had the same idea as you. At the start of this year I created my own website using my full name. I added links to my twitter, facebook, and LinkedIn. Even though I’m only a university student in Marketing I thought it was important to preserve my presence online. My sites are still a work in progress but I have made it a goal to try and make my name appear higher in google. The site is not complete (I’m using posterous) but you can check it out here, www.justinturner.org

Not to be argumentative, but I highly doubt that the dispute with rectify itself within the next ten years considering the all of the federal, state, and local employment laws as well as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that HR personnel are familiar with. I don’t think ALL of those laws will change within the next 10 years.

Also, social media screening as well (as an online presence) cannot take the place of a legally sanctioned formal background check process.

In addition, much of the information online is inaccurate and/or outdated and may not reflect the reality of today. This is reflected in many online aggregators.

Here’s another thing to consider: How does HR distinguish between someone with the same name online or a similar name (i.e. “Jim Parker vs. James Parker vs. Parker” or “Beth Parker vs. Elizabeth Parker vs. Liz Parker”) while trying to find that person’s online presence? While my name is not very common, there are at least 36 people who have my same first and last name. Some have my exact name. And some are also close to my age. And there are some with my first and last name in the state that I live. Here’s something to think about: Think about how many people there are with an online presence with the very common names of John Johnson or Jame Smiths. Again, how does HR distinguish between these names.

How would HR account for social media profiles that are fake or are impersonating another person?

The bottom line: Again, your online presence will not replace your resume in 10 years. If this were true, one would be going down a slippery slope.

Here’s another thing to think about: If we all start branding ourselves online, don’t you think sooner or later the web is going to get cluttered with all of our crap online? Wouldn’t this make it harder for HR as they would then need to sort through all of it and filter similar results?

Wouldn’t having much of one’s information online just make it a whole lot easier to impersonate and replicate someone’s presence online and make it easier for identity thieves?

There’s a fine line between privacy and being social and one must carefully balance that fine line.

Interesting article but 10 years? It is happening now and the only thing slowing this down is companies not opening up their ATS to Linkedin profiles and candidates that don’t realize that their Linkedin profile is their resume.

What are your thoughts of people starting to use their FB profile as their resume? Has anyone looked at Branchout?

I’m not sure how information that was willfully provided online is any different than information that is willfully provided in a resume. For instance, if an applicant places their sex, age, or any other “protected class” information on their paper resume, the employer isn’t on the hook for receiving that information. In both cases, online and offline, the hirer isn’t responsible for the information that the hiree provided them unless there is evidence of intentional discrimination. Not being selected for a job is not evidence of discrimination.

Unintentional discrimination is defined as follows: “The Act requires the elimination of artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary barriers to employment that operate invidiously to discriminate on the basis of race, and, if, as here, an employment practice that operates to exclude Negroes cannot be shown to be related to job performance, it is prohibited, notwithstanding the employer’s lack of discriminatory intent”.

That’s the language used in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This applies towards a hiring philosophy that produces the effect of discrimination and it doesn’t matter what sort of information the employer has access to.

All in all, merely having access to information that could potentially lead an employer to discrimate isn’t discrimination.

Unfortunate employers and recruiters only believe what they see on-line.

I decided to pay for a 3 month subscription to Spokeo and learned that I have both a facebook and twitter account. I have never opened one, and that the pictures posted are of people I do not know.

Linkedin is positive, but also a big negative. All the people recommending each other. I have read comments regarding former colleagues and no that many of them are false.

Yet hiring agencies, recruiters, and employers are using these as fact. Much more false information on the web, and yet I am the one held accountable to take care of the problem. Spokeo has told me that the fine print reads…not held liable for inaccurate info, and that this site is for entertainment purposes.

[...] resumes are not going to be redundant Image via Wikipedia Dan Schawbel writes about the reasons why he thinks that your online presence will replace the resume in 10 years. While I agree with some of [...]